5 Simple Fixes That Will Transform Your Channel Into a Growth Machine

Thousands of channels — big and small, educational and entertaining, brand pages and personal blogs — exist on YouTube today. Many of them die from foolish mistakes before even reaching their first thousand subscribers. Someone mixed too many topics — and the channel collapsed. Someone decided to buy fake views — and everything fell apart.

Completely trivial mistakes destroy bloggers' dreams and plans, burying channels at the bottom of YouTube's deepest pit. And what's particularly unfortunate — most creators didn't even suspect that such things could happen.

But it shouldn't be this way.

And today we'll tell you what you should NOT do if you actually want to stand out from that mass of bloggers in your niche who will never turn their plans into reality.

How NOT to do it #1: You're endlessly stuck at the starting line

You simply can't imagine how many times we've heard: "I'll just think through the idea — and then start a channel!" Or: "Once I buy a camera and lighting — I'll shoot my first video right away!"

Do you think such people actually start filming and uploading anything to YouTube? Of course not.

They chew over these thoughts in their heads for years but never move to action because they're afraid of making mistakes, afraid of not getting immediate results, and generally just afraid. And this isn't surprising.

Beginning creators are bombarded from all sides with endless advice like: "Do it this way," "Don't do it that way," "If you do it like that, nobody will watch you."

The key point here is that advice doesn't work until you start doing something — knowing theory is good, of course, but only practice gives understanding.
Because that's when you get the unique opportunity to start encountering problems, making mistakes, and learning the hard way. And only at that moment does all the advice gain real meaning and start working.

But that's just the beginning.

There's too much advice, and it's all different.

One expert will say to make one video per week, another will say five, and a third will say zero, and in the end you'll just start drowning in a flood of other people's rules.

But you don't have to follow everything.

Your task is to understand what works specifically for your channel. And you'll only figure all this out in the process of running it, not during endless knowledge accumulation.

Besides, it's important to try first — because you might not like being a blogger. Yes, that happens too, and it's also normal.

You might be a passionate specialist in your field, you might be fired up about your hobby or some idea, but it could easily turn out that being a blogger just isn't for you.

So don't wait — start trying right now.

How NOT to do it #2: You expect YouTube algorithms to owe you something

They should give you views, they should find your audience, they should provide good recommendations. They should make thumbnails for your videos, come up with titles, write great scripts...

Guys, wake up, that was a beautiful dream! YouTube owes you nothing. It has one task — to show viewers great content.

And we, as creators, are given a unique opportunity to create content, attract audience attention, and earn money from it. That seems like quite a lot already.

But to get results, you need to invest time and effort into it.

For some reason, a huge number of beginning creators think that YouTube will show their videos to audiences simply because they're "good people." But the platform's recommendation systems don't evaluate content quality — they only look at audience reaction.

So YouTube owes you nothing. It tests your content. If people watch — the video rides the waves of recommendations. No reaction — no promotion.

YouTube is a selection system, not a reward system.

So forget about magic pills and secret buttons. The only way to advance is to work not for YouTube, but for the viewer.

Want to please the algorithms? Please your viewers.

Learn to think like them:

• Is this topic interesting?
• Does it match what the audience is searching for?
• Does this design/presentation attract viewers?
• Does the video's storyline keep viewers engaged throughout the entire viewing time?

Every time you create and present content — ask yourself: will the viewer like this?

Because the algorithms definitely don't care.

How NOT to do it #3: No strategy, but consistent

Have you ever wondered why YouTube is full of creators who consistently put out videos for years but don't grow?

The reason is actually simple: they don't know why they're running their channel. They have no clear goal, no strategy, no understanding of who they're making content for and why.

And if the creator themselves doesn't know what their value is, how can a viewer see it? Let alone find motivation to stay with such a blogger?

If there's no goal — you get a collection of random videos that you upload just to avoid gaps. Viewers aren't interested in that; they expect to enjoy watching, not follow a publishing calendar.

Your content needs to have value for the audience, and for that to appear, you need a goal and a clear strategy. And this won't require tons of time or some analytical superpowers.

Just answer a couple of questions:

• Why are you running your channel?

You might be striving for income, self-fulfillment, or finding like-minded people — these are all logical and understandable goals, and once they appear, your work on the channel will gain concrete meaning and direction.

• Who are you running your channel for?

The answer "for everyone" is a bad answer, because if you're running a channel for everyone, then it turns out you're running it for no one.

If you can't picture your audience yourself, then YouTube won't figure out what kind of viewers with what interests should have your videos included in their recommendations. And how will viewers understand that this is content for them if it's for everyone and no one?

Be specific: my channel is for sad millennials who love to be nostalgic and grumble that things used to be better. Now that's an understandable group of people, wouldn't you agree?

• What value do you want to give viewers?

Will you help them learn something or discover something new, or simply give them a wealth of emotions? This is all about value, because people come to YouTube for different things, which means the value for each person will be their own.

And the creator's task here is to figure out what value their viewers want, and whether their content provides that value.

Every time you upload a video, evaluate whether it works toward your main goal, whether it fits your audience, and what value it carries.

How NOT to do it #4: All your content is focused only on you

People often come to YouTube to share themselves, but don't think at all about whether this will be interesting to others. And this shows up in important details.

For example, in clunky video intros where the blogger says something like "Hi everyone, you're on my channel! Today I'm going for a walk in the park!"

Or in titles that shout about how YOU went somewhere and did something, or YOU thought something there.

But here's the catch: people aren't interested in who you are and what you do at all, until you've given them some value.

YouTube today wants only one thing: to keep the audience on its territory as long as possible, and if you don't have that goal, then you're making content for yourself.

This isn't bad if your goal is to keep a video diary.

But if you've already set your sights on earning some income from content, for example, then you'll have to work hard to make it interesting. And it should be interesting not only to you, but to viewers as well.

Any personal brand is built around your unique personality that skillfully addresses the audience's interests.

So if your views aren't growing and subscribers aren't coming, think carefully: are you making content for yourself or for the viewer?

How NOT to do it #5: You expect your channel to grow, but keep doing the same thing

Let's imagine that your channel has plateaued or started losing reach. And you keep releasing content hoping that magically everything will return to previous metrics.

Let's draw an analogy: if you take a test over and over again and write the same answers, will your result change? Probably not.

It's the same on YouTube: if your channel's metrics are falling and you're not changing anything, then the result won't change either.

Blogging in general is an unstable thing: yesterday you were successful and in demand, and today trendy tendencies have changed, new cool creators have arrived, and you find yourself in the back rows.

To always stay afloat, you need to analyze your successes, failures, and channel in the moment.

Yesterday some video topic worked, but today it doesn't. You need to figure out why, and what topic will work today.

You need to constantly analyze everything that's happening on your channel, in your niche, in the world. YouTube won't do this for you — it already gives creators a lot to make work easier: analytics, help guides, even a separate website for creators with useful articles. As they say, where there's a will, there's a way.

If your channel has declined, you have only one path — experiments. And no one guarantees that your path to something new will be easy.

And after all this long speech, we want to give you a concrete answer to the question "How to compete with other creators and successfully promote on YouTube?": as soon as you learn to make content that people like, YouTube itself will start actively promoting you.

You need to shoot videos that people simply won't be able to stop watching. Because, if you haven't forgotten yet, content needs to be made not for YouTube and not to outpace other creators. It needs to be made for viewers.